UNIVERSITY RESEARCH COUNCIL
MEETING
Dr. George E. Klinzing, Chair
Minutes –
The
meeting convened at
Announcements
Science 2002. Science 2002 is scheduled for
Sigma Xi. The local group of Sigma Xi
was put on “inactive” status this year since no representative attended the
national meeting. Dr. Klinzing is
working to reenergize this group and has contacted current members via e-mail
to seek their help in identifying strategies to bring the group together. This group has an annual dinner meeting to
induct new members (and is particularly interested in graduate students), as
well as to hear a presentation by an invited speaker. If URC members are interested or know of
anyone who is already a member, please let Dr. Klinzing know.
Small Grants Programs. Award letters have
been sent to the directors of all the proposals
recommended for funding by the URC.
Requests for reviewers’ comments have been received from 6-8 proposal
submitters who were not funded and will be sent. It was suggested that these comments be sent
to everyone who submitted a proposal, and URC members present agreed. Dr. Klinzing will follow through.
NSF Budgets. Results of a national survey
indicate that the NSF needs to increase both the size of grant awards as well
as to increase the length of its awards.
Military Research Security.
The Department of Defense (DoD)
has announced that it wants to review everything that has been done in relation
to its funded projects, particularly the publishing of results which, for the
academic community, may affect their rights of academic freedom. It was also noted that increased security
measures and other restrictions, especially with respect to laboratories and
research data, are being added into budgets, increasing requested funding up to
15 percent.
Subcommittees
Dr.
Klinzing reported that the policies are ready for submission to Senate Council
for approval in accordance with the streamlined approval process agreed upon
with Senate President James Cassing, and expects that
the Senate will be reviewing all policies in September. On the Commercialization Policy, Dr.
Klinzing has scheduled a meeting with the Senate President to discuss. The Patent Policy has been modified to
include modern electronic components, as well as updated according to current
practice, and agreement has been reached for the distribution of
resources. This policy will be sent to
the Senate for review and approval. Dr.
Klinzing thanked the subcommittee members for their hard work and diligence and
submission of a detailed report that was instrumental in moving this policy
forward. The Brainstorming Committee
on intercollaborative research has sent a report. Although more information is needed, Dr.
Klinzing will follow up on several of the ideas presented.
In other
subcommittee business, Dr. Klinzing noted that next year, he would like to set
up a meeting
with social scientists that would focus on education and
discussed another possible meeting with Taieb
Znati and select others. Dr. Klinzing will also explore the
possibility of regional campus members’ ability to attend future URC meetings
via telephone/speakerphone, noting that due to time constraints it may be
impractical for members to travel to
Office of Research Report:
Operations:
(1) Director Michael Crouch reported on the status of e-proposal
submissions sent recently to the Army Medical Command’s RFP. He noted that task management was intense,
and the staff from the six Health Sciences’ areas (MGB, Pathology, Urology,
Pharmacology and PCI) cooperated well.
The next round of electronic submissions will involve breast cancer
program proposals; he anticipates processing approximately 50 proposals. He also reported that NIH has announced its
plans to make the transition to an all-electronic submission protocol for
non-competing continuation applications by November 1. Group discussion focused on the problems of
infrastructure in proposal processing, such as the inability to include
electronic signatures, the unavailability of grants management software, and
the need for more resources for the Office of Research to conduct needs
assessments, as well as additional lead time for compliance reviews. A suggestion of three days’ prior to due date
would be reasonable except for multi-site submissions, and Mr. Crouch
agreed. Dr. Klinzing asked Council
members to speak with colleagues and get back to him with comments. (2)
Mr. Crouch subsequently called members’ attention to the recent (May 20)
memorandum from Provost Maher regarding proposal review of applications
involving animal research. Although
participation in this process in voluntary for the summer, the experience
gained may result in future procedural updates.
(3) The Office of Research recently hosted the annual NCURA continuing
education teleconference that focused on compliance. Approximately 28 people attended the 4-hour
broadcast.
Funding Notes. The Office of Research is in
the process of completing its preliminary compilation of the FY 2001 annual
awards report. He informed members that
total amount of awards increased approximately 10% overall from FY 2000.
Policy Developments. (1) The Public Health Service
plans to implement assurance procedures for animals, similar to that currently
in place for human subjects. (2) A template for stem cell research is being
developed that will result in a Web-based faculty-friendly template. This is a variant of the current forms for
Materials Transfer Agreements, but with additional monitoring.
Adjournment
With the expectation that no additional meetings would be required
this academic year (unless there was an emergency), Dr. Klinzing thanked all
members for their service this year. The meeting
adjourned at